Welcome to your daily rundown of the latest, must-read news and analysis from Tes magazine.

In the ongoing battle to fix the attendance crisis, tackling emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) – where students have severe difficulty attending school owing to emotional, mental health or anxiety factors – will be key. However, in an exclusive poll for Tes, a majority of primary and secondary teachers said they didn’t feel equipped to support children affected by EBSA, while a tenth of respondents did not even know what it was. So, how can the government and schools address this “major issue”? Below, John Roberts speaks to experts to find out.

Also in today’s briefing, the government has sharply reduced its target for recruiting postgraduate teacher trainees next year, with music, physics and RE among the subjects seeing the largest drop in ITT “need”; and new analysis has revealed that some local authorities under the greatest pressure for specialist places face missing out on millions in capital funding next year.

Scroll down to find all these stories and more.

WORKFORCE

Big drop in DfE target for new teacher trainees

Subjects such as music, physics and RE to see biggest fall, with large reductions at primary

FUNDING

Overstretched SEND areas to miss out on millions

An £860m pot is being skewed towards large councils despite other LAs having more need

POLICY

Reform would make schools fly Union Jack flag

Party suggests introduction of ‘patriotic’ history classes, including topics already in curriculum

EXPLAINER

How putting phone ‘ban’ into law would affect schools

Will the government’s planned legal change on mobile phones in schools actually help?

COMMENT

Schools must work together on curriculum preparation

Two trust leaders on why they are encouraging more schools to share ideas ahead of the 2028 deadline for implementing new requirements